A week ago, St. John’s suffered one of the most frustrating losses of their already disappointing season, blowing a 10-point lead in the second half and collapsing against Providence. With a 9-5 record and their two road games against Butler and Creighton suddenly becoming more important, the Red Storm need to show their fans – and most importantly themselves – that they can get off the mat and get back in the fight.
On Tuesday, they fought a tight game from seven points down to beat the Bulldogs by 14 points. On Saturday, they won by technical knockout.
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St. John’s defeated Creighton 90-73 for its fourth straight victory and first road victory over the Blue Jays since 2019.
Although Creighton withstood an early 7-0 spurt to take a 23-18 lead, they quickly fell into trouble on both sides from that point on. St. John’s outscored the Blue Jays 34-11 and went into the locker room with a 52-34 lead the remainder of the half. The Johnnies’ three-man frontcourt used their size advantage to dominate the rebounding battle by a combined score of 24-11, and they shut down offensive rebounds in the first half.
The Red Storm continued to press in the second half, with Bryce Hopkins hitting a jumper from close range to give the Johnnies an 84-57 lead with 5:05 left, extending their largest lead to 27 points. Clayton’s late goal made the final scoreline even more attractive for the home team.
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St. John’s found offensive success after Zubie Ejiofor continually punished Creighton’s aggressive help defense, with the star big man kicking the ball to open shooters every time multiple defenders converged on him near the basket. Ejiofor’s playmaking ability resulted in a team-high six assists of his own and the second-best three-point shooting performance of the season for the Johannes, who combined to hit 12-of-23 three-pointers (52.2%).
Ejiofor’s player who benefited the most from the defensive attention was leading scorer Lefteris Liotopoulos, who built on his recent hot shooting performance by scoring a career-high 17 points and knocking down five 3-pointers off the bench. Leotopoulos was one of six Red Storm players to score in double figures.
St. John’s, who improved to 4-1 in the Big East Conference for the third consecutive season under Rick Pitino, returns to New York on Tuesday, Jan. 13 to take on the underachieving Marquette Golden Eagles (6-11, 1-5 Big East) in what is more of a “can’t lose” than a “must win” game. Tip-off at Madison Square Garden is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., and the game can be streamed live on Peacock.
